


It's The Great Pumpkin, Tony Stark

by TintedPink



Series: 13 Days of Halloween 2018 [6]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Cute Peter Parker, Established Relationship, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, M/M, Minor Carol Danvers/James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Stephen Strange is a Cutie, Tony Stark Has A Heart, hayrides, slight PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-08-08 17:44:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16433960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TintedPink/pseuds/TintedPink
Summary: Tony and Stephen visit a pumpkin patch and take a hayride through a haunted graveyard.Senseless comfort and some nice haunted fluff, with bonus tiny ghost-hunter Peter.





	It's The Great Pumpkin, Tony Stark

**Author's Note:**

> (I will make this fun and cute later, I just need to get this off my computer, but I'm so tired. Honestly, I love this fluff piece so much. I hope y'all enjoy it. Can you tell I gave up on 13 Days of Halloween? I wrote over 12,000 words in a week, and that's just way too much.)  
> Beta'd by [jncnicole](https://jncnicole.tumblr.com) on Tumblr. All remaining mistakes are mine.

“Hayrides are dangerous, have no regulation, and people die! We are not getting on that.” Tony crossed his arms more than happy to make Stephen carry both of their pumpkins back to the car if he was going to try and tell Tony that they should get on a hayride. No thanks. Not looking to die today.

“You’re just saying that because you’re scared,” Stephen said, nonchalantly grabbing a pumpkin, mostly hiding his wince at the pain in his hands.

“Give me that.” Tony reached for the pumpkin after watching Stephen struggled for a few moments. “Mine is lighter. Don’t hurt yourself for a stupid pumpkin.”

“I wasn’t hurting myself,” Stephen said, but he gratefully picked up the lighter pumpkin and carried most of the weight against his chest.

“And now, you’re not hurting yourself even less. Yay me. We’re still not going on a hayride. Hayrides are for people who don’t care about their safety.”

“I still say you’re just scared.”

“I’m not scared. I’m reasonable. Carol! Tell Stephen I’m being completely reasonable not wanting to go on a haunted hayride.”

“You’re not reasonable, you’re chicken!” Carol yelled back from where she and Rhodey were already buying their tickets. Damn it, that traitor.

“See,” Stephen said, raising his eyebrows at him like he was being completely reasonable. He wasn’t.

“No, I’m still not doing it.” He shook his head and continued walking towards their car, pointedly past the line where Rhodey and Carol were lining up. “I’m not going to put my safety at risk for a cheap thrill. If Carol doesn’t love Rhodey enough to keep him away from that hellscape, then that sounds like an issue for them to sort out.”

“Hey, Stephen, if Tony won’t go you can ride with us. I have plenty of college stories to tell about parties, a certain genius ending up face down and naked in the Kappa house swimming pool…” Rhodey raised his eyebrows at them innocently, and Tony bristled.

“No!” He yelled,  doubling back where Stephen was stalling by the line. “No, no. No. Not happening. Stephen, honey, let’s go. Let’s go…” He stressed, using his pumpkin to push at Stephen’s back and guide him away from the line, but Stephen, though deceptively slim, was tall and quite heavy and not moving anytime soon.

“No, I want to go on the Hayride. If you don’t want to that’s fine. Carol and Rhodes will keep me company.”

“Oh no, they won’t.” Tony gives one last shove and when it doesn’t work he gives up, adjusting the pumpkin in his arms and sighing. “Fine, we can do the stupid hayride.”

Tony doesn’t look at his boyfriend, because he knows that his smile will be ridiculously smug, and he doesn’t want to see it. Or hear it. Or have anything to do with it really.

Stephen kissed him on the head, and they got in line behind Rhodey and Carol. Rhodey, being the sweetheart that Tony always told him he was, took Stephen’s pumpkin from him, and Tony happily fell into the new space in his arms. Stephen laughed and just hugged him close. Carol cooed and Rhodey rolled his eyes, but there was a smile on his face just the same. Carol and Rhodey were there as “just friends” but Tony was 99% sure that they’d be dating before Thanksgiving, the adorable assholes.

"I love you,” Stephen whispered in Tony’s ear, too low for anyone else to hear. Tony grinned and pressed his head into Stephen’s shoulder, knowing better than to just take that. Stephen didn’t just say “I love you.” When Stephen said “I love you” 80% of the time it was a reminder/a preemptive apology because he was about to do something Tony probably wouldn’t like (and may even hate). The other 20% of times they were in bed doing that pillow talk think that apparently lots of people do. Tony had a hard time believing it, but maybe he could see why people liked it. It was kind of nice.

But they weren’t in bed. Tony was preparing for the worst.

“I love you too, and if I die on this hayride I’m gonna haunt the hell out of you.”

“Fair enough,” Stephen chuckled, and Tony bit his lip to keep from doing the same. “At least then I’ll get to spend the rest of my life with you.”

Rhodey made a gagging noise from somewhere in front of them as Carol laughed. Tony missed the way she grabbed James’ arm, but Stephen didn’t. If they waited until after Thanksgiving to finally make it official Stephen got twenty bucks, so he was kind of hoping they’d hold off. Looks like he probably wasn’t going to win.

It was just all the more reason to torment Tony tonight on the hayride.

“How long is this going to take?” Tony asked when they’d been standing there for a few minutes already.

“They said the tractor would be back around in about twenty minutes.”

“What?” Tony moaned, burying his face in Stephen’s chest. “Why are you torturing us. What if I’m allergic to hay? What if I get hay fever, Stephen? I could die.”

“Hay fever is just allergies, and you’re on an antihistamine. You’ll be fine.”

“Well maybe hay fever is different for me. What if Hay fever gives me an intense fever because of how much I hate hay, and hay rides, and tractors, and pumpkins. Why do you make us come to these things?”

“It was your idea to come to a pumpkin patch, Tony,” Stephen rolled his eyes, and when he met Rhodes’ eyes the man just shrugged as if to say, “he’s your problem now.”

There were worse problems to have in Stephen’s opinion.

“Well, that idea must’ve come from the part of the universe that you get your ideas from because it’s a bad idea. Just like that time you decided to wear skinny jeans to Christine’s pool party. Bad decision.”

“Tony,” Stephen hissed, because that hadn’t been anything that Rhodes or Carol needed to know, and that entire experience had been awful for Stephen. And he’d had his hands crushed in a car accident.

Rhodes and Carol were laughing, and Stephen was starting to feel a little bit frustrated. “Not as bad as the decision to let the cat stay in the bathroom while you showered.”

“Oh my God, Stephen, that was one time.” Tony pulled back, looking at him with accusatory eyes, “And I can’t believe you brought that up.”

“What happened with the cat in the shower?” Carol asked, looking far too amused.

“Shut up,” Tony said, but it was too late.

“It opened the curtain while Tony was in the shower and tried to drink the falling water. When it got hit in the face it tried to get away by crawling up Tony’s back while he still had shampoo in his eyes.”

“I have scars, Stephen, this isn’t funny,” Tony groaned, but Rhodes and Carol were both laughing, Stephen was smirking, and even Tony was hiding a laugh in Stephen’s chest. Maybe it was a little bit funny.

“It was just clinging to his head when I came in. He couldn’t get the soap out of his eyes because everytime he got close to the showerhead she dug her claws in harder.”

“I’m convinced she scratched my brain.” Tony’s words were muffled by Stephen’s coat, and even further distorted by the shaking of Stephen’s chest with laughter. Tony let his warm baritone laugh soothe the sting away of being called out in front of his best friend and smiled contently into Stephen’s coat.

“You wanted a cat,” Stephen said.

“Cats are lower maintenance.”

“Cats also scratch your brain.”

Tony lifted his head to look directly at Rhodey, “Worth it.”

Rhodey snorted with laughter and Tony winked at Carol when he caught her smiling fondly at him. He had a bet to win, after all. She averted her gaze and pretended not to notice, head tilted up proudly.

When the tractor (finally, finally!) came back around, Tony was the last one to get on. Rhodey and Stephen gave him a hand up each, not at all because Tony was short, and he situated himself beside Stephen, practically sitting in his lap if he was being honest. Carol and Rhodey had a respectable distance between them, but Tony was high hopes that it’d be less respectable in half an hour.

Tony, who still openly did not want to be there, said nothing as the driver explained what he’d be doing, telling them to keep their hands and feet inside the trailer, the path they were going down was haunted so be careful, yada yada. Tony stopped listening _hours_ ago. Get on with the ride.

Because he hadn’t been paying attention, Tony was completely caught off guard when the trailer started to move. Both Stephen and Rhodey moved to steady him and Tony, being Tony, gave Rhodey a lewd look.

“Keep your hands to yourself, airman. I wouldn’t want my boyfriend to get jealous.” He winked and Rhodey rolled his eyes.

“Please, he can have you. I’ve done enough Tony-wrangling to last a lifetime.”

“Pity, I can use all the help I can get.”

“I am right here.” Tony reiterated, looking between Rhodey and Stephen before turning to Carol for help.

“Hey, I can neither confirm nor deny. I’ve never had to Tony-wrangle.”

“It’s like herding a cat,” Rhodey told her and Stephen nodded.

“A cat that absolutely refuses to listen to anyone, including himself and his own survival instinct.”

“I’ll have you know, I can’t listen to something I don’t have. Carol, air lady, favorite person on this hayride, tell them I’m a treat.”

“Sure.” Carol smiles, “Tony’s just a treat.” She said in the best (worst) 1950s imitation voice Tony had ever heard, and he lost it. Stephen raised an eyebrow at him, moderately concerned, and Rhodey rolled his eyes while Carol beamed.

“She- she is my favorite person,” Tony gasped as he clutched his side with one hand and Stephen with the other. “Oh my God, Stephen, I’m leaving you for 1950s Carol.”

“I guess I’ll have to fight her to the death for your heart then.” Stephen shrugged and Tony started his laughter up again.

“What am I, chopped liver?” Rhodey chimed in, all of them enjoying Tony’s complete inability to control himself. Rhodey had never seen Tony that happy before he got together with Stephen. The longer they were together, the happier they both seemed to get. They’d pulled each other through some tough places after meeting in rehab, Tony for his heart and Stephen for his hands, and Rhodey thanked the stars every day that they found each other.

“If Tony’s a cat, I think that means in this analogy he’d like you best,” Stephen assured him with so much confidence and with such a serious tone that Tony couldn’t help but smile.

“I like you all in different equal ways.” Tony nodded and kept a straight face like he was making an official declaration to a kingdom instead of soft reassurances to his friends and boyfriend.

“And what ways are those?” Stephen asked, kissing Tony’s head.

“Well, I obviously like you for your body.” He ran a hand down Stephen’s torso and wiggled his eyebrows at him. “I like Carol for her mind and…” he squinted at Rhodey like he was trying to figure something out, “I don’t know why I like you Platypus. Maybe just because you’ve been here longest?”

Rhodey laughed, shoving Tony playfully, “I don’t know why I like you either, dork.”

The laughter died down and the four of them rode in silence, ignoring the man at the front explaining to them about the haunted trail and just enjoying each other’s company. Tony was nearly collapsed against Stephen and Carol and Rhodey were unconsciously leaning towards each other.

“This is nice,” Stephen said quietly into Tony’s hair after a while. Tony smiled. Maybe it was losing ground to admit that he actually wasn’t hating the hayride of death, but Stephen wasn’t wrong. It was really nice to see the brightly colored leaves and the cornfield and the stupid pumpkins everywhere. He leaned a little closer to Stephen, not that there was much space between them to begin with, and Stephen wrapped an arm around him.

“It’s supposed to be haunted,” some kid pouted just loud enough for all of them to hear to a woman and a man that looked a little bit old to be his parents, but Tony had seen weirder things.

“It’ll be haunted soon enough. It’s the place they’re taking us that’s haunted, and we haven’t gotten there yet. Just be patient.” The woman kissed him on the top of the head and Stephen caught her eye on accident. She smiled at he and Tony curled up together before turning back to the boy.

“That’s sweet,” Carol murmured to Rhodey, and Tony didn’t know if she was talking about the boy or the aunt, but Tony agreed either way.

Unfortunately, it didn’t stay sweet for very long. Suddenly someone started screaming from off in the distance and Tony jumped, pushing away from Stephen and immediately on high alert. Stephen grasped his hand to keep him seated and grounded. “We’re right here, it’s just a ride.” Stephen reminded him, and Tony nodded, relaxing into his seat with feigned nonchalance and tense shoulders. Rhodey and Carol seemed fairly relaxed, but Stephen was worried about Tony.

Another scream, this one closer, sounded off from inside the corn field. The corn stalks rustled and the little boy looked excited to be witnessing a real haunting. Tony was happy for him as he chattered away to the woman, but couldn’t relax himself. He’d had enough things jump out at him and scare him in Afghanistan, and it didn’t really matter that Tony knew it was fake, it was still putting him on edge.

Stephen pulled Tony close, wrapping an arm around his waist to keep him settled and setting his wrist near Tony’s palm where the man could grasp it if he wanted to. He did, and Stephen knew he was probably counting time with his heart beat.

As they kept driving the trail got weirder. A woman ran out in front of the tractor, stopped, and then just vanished right before they hit her. Tony kept looking around for the projector as they rode over the spot where they’d been standing, but he couldn’t find any. Then an honest to God skeleton jogged up beside them and high-fived the boy, which… what? That wasn’t even scary, it was just weird. The boy gushed to the woman he was with about how the hand had actually felt bony, and how cool it was to touch a skeleton. The same skeleton came back a few minutes later and tugged on Carol’s scarf to get her attention. He gave her a stalk of corn like a bouquet and Carol accepted it gratefully, much to the boy’s amusement and Rhodey’s chagrin. Tony smirked into Stephen’s chest about Rhodey being showed up by a skeleton and an ear of corn on his not-date.

Something fell out of a tree and directly into the trailer, making everyone in the trailer jump. It was a moving wiggling spider that thankfully stayed put as the tractor continued to move forward. It swing right over Tony’s head, one of it’s hairy legs touching his hair. Tony grasped Stephen’s hand tighter, and Stephen winced at the pain. When Tony felt Stephen jump he looked at him and understood immediately, releasing his grip and apologizing.

“It’s okay,” Stephen assured him, taking Tony’s hand again, squeezing Tony’s hand just a little bit tighter than was comfortable. He could handle a little pain for the sake of his boyfriend.

“I’m not a chicken,” he grumbled, hugging Stephen, and Stephen hugged him back.

“I know you aren’t.” He patted Tony on the back lightly, cradling one hand against the back of Tony’s head and guiding his ear to his pulse point. When they said “haunted” Stephen had expected some cheesy soundtracks, or cheap moving animatronics from a superstore, not things jumping out at them from trees. He might not have suggested it if he’d known. Tony wasn’t easily startled necessarily, but there were some things that Tony didn’t handle well anymore. One of those things was jumpscares and Stephen probably should have known better.

Tony’s breathing was purposefully slow, and Stephen rubbed his back in time with it, laughing with the boy as the skeleton brought another ear of corn to the woman he was sitting with, and then a corn husk to the man beside her. The man made a show of being offended for the boy’s benefit, and the boy giggled. It was sweet.

Rhodey caught his eye and tilted his head up, glancing at Tony. Stephen nodded his head and mouth, “I’ve got him.” Rhodey nodded, and started talking to Carol again, but he was always watching Tony out of the corner of his eye. Stephen had always appreciated the close friendship between Rhodes and Tony. It made him feel better knowing that Tony always had someone. Slowly as the ride progressed Tony’s breathing became more natural, and soon enough he was dozing right through tapes of maniacal laughter and fake lightning and thunder. They all jumped when a man in bloodied clothes jumped onto the back of the trailer and started asking if they knew where he was. He was doing a very good job of acting confused.

“Do you know where I am?” He asked, addressing Tony who was just peeking out from where his face was hidden in Stephen’s coat.

“You’re on a terrible hayride. You should get off while you can.”

The man seemed to consider this, tilting his head this way and that, then between one blink and the next he seemed to forget he’d been talking to Tony and addressed the boy.

“Do you know where I am?”

“You’re on a hayride!” The boy shrieked, throwing his arms up. “With all of us. This is my Aunt May and Uncle Ben. If you’re lost they can help you!” He said, not even pretending to be scared. The man just blinked again, nodding, before turning around and hopping off the trailer. In the back of his head there was a fake knife buried in his spinal cord, which Stephen was sure would paralyze him if it was real. The boy screamed, the blood not having bothered him, but a fake knife seeming to be the end of that rope. Tony had the opposite reaction, calming down at the sight of the prosthetic, like his logical brain was finally kicking on and allowing him to enjoy the fakeness of it.

None of them mentioned how the man had brought a strange chill with him that was gone as soon as he was out of sight in the corn.

“The prosthetics are really good.” Tony whispered to Stephen, eyes lingering where the man had disappeared. “I couldn’t even tell they were fake.”

“I guess it was worth ten bucks a ticket then.”

“We should have tipped that guy.” Tony nodded, looking around for more scares.

The next one came in the form of another man running alongside the cart, and he just kept asking for help, and even though the boy, Peter, as Tony had learned from his Aunt asking him to sit down, was trying to convince him to jump on the trailer. The man didn’t seem to hear Peter, and when the man talked he was looking too low to meet anyone’s eyes, like the person he was talking to was sitting on the floor. He grabbed the slats of the trailer, banging on it and begging for them to stop, but the tractor driver kept going. It was kind of unnerving, but not necessarily scary.

“I’m cold,” Tony said, shoving one of his hands into Stephen’s coat pockets.

“It did get a lot colder just then. I didn’t think we had a front coming in.” Stephen frowned at the sky, and was surprised that he could see his own breath when he breathed out in exasperation at the weather.

“Yeah, I didn’t think so either,” Rhodey said rubbing his arms through the too-thin long sleeve shirt that had been perfect insulation a few minutes before.

“It’s probably just because the sun is setting,” Carol hazarded a guess, but even she seemed skeptical.

“It’s a real ghost…” Peter whispered, and Tony looked over at him. The kid couldn’t be serious.

But he was. He was tugging on his Aunt’s sweater, telling her about how “When a real ghost shows up it gets cold. It’s cold. Aunt May it’s a real ghost. That man’s dead!” He covered his mouth like he’d just said a bad word, and Tony smiled a little bit tightly before turning back to Stephen. Of course it wasn’t a real ghost, but Tony couldn’t just come out and say that. It’d spoil the kid’s fun.

When the man finally got too tired to keep up with the trailer any longer he started falling back, and then vanished like he hadn’t been there when they were a few yards away from him.

“That was a neat trick.” Tony said, feeling slightly uneasy as he tried to figure out how such a “neat trick” could happen.

“Yeah,” Carol nodded, moving closer to Rhodes.

“And now we’re coming to the graveyard folks. Keep your hands and feet inside and maybe step away from the edges of the trailer. The spirits here are a lot more wiley than the ones we’ve seen so far.”

“Oh great.” Tony mumbled, moving as far away from the side as he could get without slipping off the bale of hay he’d been perched on. He wasn’t looking forward to the graveyard, but it was better than all the screaming.

“Are they really going to drive a tractor through a graveyard?” Stephen asked, looking kind of concerned as they came up on said graveyard.

Yes, they were, apparently going to drive a tractor through a graveyard. It seemed sort of disrespectful,. If Tony was a spirit he’d be grabbing at people too, but maybe it was just a set. The stones looked real, but so far the prosthetics and effects had been really good.

“Huh,” Tony said as spirits started to “materialize” around them over gravestones, most of them looking agitated, but not angry or particularly scary. One woman made a grab for Carol’s scarf, which she promptly pulled out of reach, and another seemed to be reaching for Peter.

“This graveyard sits on a ley line, where the spirits have more energy to materialize with. On Halloween they even move from their graves.” The tractor driver told them, and Tony squinted. That… didn’t sound anything like science.

He kept looking for breaks in character, for someone to act like a regular person, or to answer a text or something, but these people were dedicated to their jobs.

“You guys are doing great!” Tony yelled, trying to get them to break character, but the ones that responded at all just looked at him with confused expressions. “They’re really good.” He said to Stephen.

“They’re real ghosts!” The kid yelled, begging his Aunt, May, for her phone to take a picture. When she refused the Uncle, Ben, winked at her and handed the kid his own phone, making him promise to be careful with it.

The kid screamed when he finally opened the camera, loud enough to make them all wince.

“They’re orbs! I can see orbs! I should have brought my EMF reader.” He kept taking pictures and Tony grinned, wondering how they’d managed that. It was kind of cute, even if his ear was ringing a little bit now. “Ned is gonna be so jealous. We can send the pictures to Ned, right Uncle Ben?”

“Sure, Peter. I’m sure he’d love to see them.”

“This is the coolest thing ever!”

Tony didn’t care much for the haunted hayride, but he was glad he got to see some random kid get ridiculously excited about fake ghosts. He couldn’t even remember the last time he got that excited for something.

“Aren’t you glad we came?” Stephen asked like he could read Tony’s mind, not even bothering to hide the smugness in his voice.

“Oh shut up.” He smacked Stephen lightly in the chest, but his grin was too broad to hide behind false irritation.

The tractor started to pull into the parking lot, having done it’s circuit. Tony was eager to get off the death trap, but he’d kind of enjoyed it. Maybe it would become a thing for them. Couples had things, traditions, whatever. Maybe he could have that with Stephen. They carried their pumpkins back to the car in quiet contentment, neither of them fully comprehending the spiritual gravity of the place they’d just left, unlike the little boy with his Uncle’s camera phone excitedly sending pictures to his best friend and future ghost hunting partner.

**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr](iwritefanficsometimes.tumblr.com)


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